BNP may call hartal for Thursday

The top leadership of the main opposition BNP late last night decided to call a nationwide dawn to dusk hartal for Thursday protesting price hike of fuel, share market scam, and repression on opposition leaders and activists.
The party will also stage demonstrations across the country on Wednesday over the same issues.
It called an emergency media briefing for noon today at its central office in the capital to make a formal announcement about the protest programmes.
The decision was taken in an emergency meeting of BNP's senior leaders at Chairperson Khaleda Zia's Gulshan office with her in the chair. The two-hour meeting started at 10:15pm.
Meeting sources said the opposition leaders discussed in detail the incident of clashes between police and Jamaat-e-Islami men yesterday that prompted the authorities to arrest Jamaat leaders including its Acting Secretary General ATM Azharul Islam.
"We have discussed the latest political situation and the preparations for our September 27 rally. We will inform you in detail about the meeting's decisions tomorrow," BNP Acting Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir told reporters after the meeting.
Party leaders Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain, Nazrul Islam Khan, Mirza Abbas, Goyeshwar Chandra Roy, and Dhaka Mayor Sadeque Hossain Khoka were present at the meeting among others.
The sources said the leaders mainly discussed the impact of price hike of fuel and decided to protest it strongly. They think it will help the party to get more public support ahead of its scheduled rally from where Khaleda Zia is expected to announce a raft of anti-government programmes.
The government raised prices of diesel, kerosene, petrol and octane by Tk 5 a litre, and of furnace oil by Tk 8, which took effect from Sunday midnight.
MANMOHAN WRITES TO KHALEDA
An email sent to the media from BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia's Gulshan office yesterday claimed that Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh sent a letter to Khaleda following their recent meeting in Dhaka.
In the letter Manmohan said he believes such exchanges "always contribute to better understanding and are in the spirit of democratic polity", the email read.
The email claimed that Manmohan said in the letter that he has greatly benefited from Khaleda Zia's perspective on relations between Bangladesh and India and the issues of concern to both.
The Indian prime minister also expressed appreciation to Khaleda Zia for her contribution to strengthening and improving India-Bangladesh relations.